Hi all
I tried a nettle feed, made by squishing up some nettles in bucket of water for a week or two - actually in this heat, it only took a few days to turn into an incredibly stinky mess. It really smells like something died in my garden, quite vile! Won't be doing that again.
My question is this - is there any reason that a straightforward nettle tea, or perhaps just drying the leaves and crumbling them into the compost, would be any less nourishing for the plants? Does the letting-it-turn-to-stinky-goop serve any helpful purpose?
cheers
Helen
no idea but I love the VERY accurate description.
I just hope someone says yes :D
Comfrey smells even worse.
The nettle gets even worse if you leave it even longer becuase it begins to crawl with maggots. Once this happens the smell seems to be the least of your worries.
Have you tried putting some of the leaves with water in a food mixer and then using it before it gets to the stinky stage?
hmmm, i'm about to make some...so thanks for reminding me that it should be kept as far away from the house as possible...sorry neighbours but it's likely to be right by your fence.
I assume that the nitrogen (which is what you are after in the main) is released through decomposition - ie a chemical reaction as the nettles rot down into the water. The nitrogen is trapped in the leaves - just as trees store C02, so I don't think crushing or blending would release it - just give you smaller solid particles. Admittedly these may then decompose quicker than rotting down whole leaves (smaller particles = greater surface area = faster reaction) but you NEED the solid parts, no matter how small they are, to break down into their constituent elements for the goodness to be released.
Burning the leaves would also release the nitrogen, but then you wouldn't be able to trap it and use it, so the water absorbs the nitrogen as it is released and provides a carrier to get it to your waiting plants. (I think)
I guess chemically you could argue that applying a dressing of crushed nettles and allowing these to rot in situ would work to some degree, but I suspect you would need to keep it all moist for the process to work best.
Also, the liquid 'tea' can be applied as a foliar feed and is therefore absorbed directly by the plants.
But all of this is just me trying to work out what is happening and I'm sure a person qualified in chemistry would be able to give a much better answer!
With comfrey, I placed the leaves dry in an old wormary, but a covered bucket with a few holes should do.
As the leaves rot down, you drain off the liquid and use as a feed, diluted 1:15.
You still end up with a sticky mess, which I just slung on the compost, but because any liquid is drained off, there is no smell.
Don't know if this works for nettles, but should be worth a go.
Having just put some on my plants mine is very ripe at the moment, been brewing for about three weeks. Forgot about it thanks for the reminder.
Afraid to say that I think it is MEANT to stink :-) Here in France it is called Purin d'ortie, purin being also the word for pig s***t...
You can also just stick loads of nettles in your compost or bury it when you plant things like spuds.
We made some last year on the premise that it couldnt possibly smell THAT bad,how wrong we were! stinky stinky stinky!
Right now my hands "Stink"...been using Rhubarb Tea to spray plants...I also have a bath full of rotting nettles, an old plastic onion bag hanging in a barrel of water down the plot..nettle tea, S**t tea...they are all old ways of putting back into the soil ...eer! what ..trace ellements, nutriments of one sort or another, okay they may Stink...but they do a d**n sight more good than the stuff you can buy..My opinion for what its wuth...but I will certainly continue to do so....... ;) ;) ;)
Me Grandad used it....so will I..... ;)
It's like medicine; that's only good for you if it tastes nasty, and liquid manure is only good if it stinks!
I am sure there must be more to it than nitrogen. That can be applied in a much less smelly form.
I have always been impressed by the effects of nettles and I do not think it stinks as bad as next door's bbq.
It stops my golden delicious apple getting mildew on the leaves but if sprayed on then the smell gets into the air and it is appalling.
It can't just be nitrogen. I think there's a lot more in it besides that!
I have three quarters of a dustbin full of this stinking stuff. I think my best bet will be to dig it into the soil prior to planting my squash or runner bean plants but my question is "how do I get it out of the dustbin?" It is too heavy to carry and is on the lawn and not in my vegetable garden. It makes me want to be sick ever time I go near it.
I think this thread is putting me off stinky nettle goop for life !
Good luck Pualine ;) :)
Quote from: antipodes on May 26, 2010, 10:40:18
You can also just stick loads of nettles in your compost or bury it when you plant things like spuds.
would it work for squash as well as potatoes?
Nettles do have high levels of nitrogen & potassium which is beneficial as fertiliser but the most useful part is all the minor nutrients they contain which makes nettle tea a kind of cure all for almost any nutrient deficiencies you will have problems with.
There is a breakdown of the composition of a nettle here:
http://www.herballegacy.com/Vance_Chemical.html
I use an old pair of waterproof trousers, an old waterproof and chemical gloves when I deal with it - I once got it on my skin and it just did not wash off - stank for days. Now all I have to deal with is being very sweaty.
re Nettles - Plucking the leaves and compressing then placing at the bottom of the hole your planting in also works - at least it does for tomatoes in growpots in growbags.
I don't know what people are complaing about - when I was a kid I used to have to cycle to school past the local pig farm. Every couple of months they'd pump the slurry and spray it onto the fields. You could taste it in the air from a mile away.
Well stewed nettles or comfrey are positavely mild compared to pigs.
Oink! Oink! I don't understand either.
Finally had cause to use some this year and had the same results two years running so feel I can let on - it might help some of you more sensitive types. I have a big full size plastic rubbish bin that I use. Two years ago, I ran out early Autumn and made a fresh batch of which very little got used. It over wintered and the following year hardly stank - but was still effective. Thought I would do the same last Autumn and this year, the smell is a lot milder again - so I think a good period once the remnants of vegetation are removed helps lessen the smell.
Laughing my head off here, stinky hands, protective clothing, dustbins on the lawn that need moving.Pauline upchucking as she does it, tasting pig poop,sweating inside plastic clothing in the height of summer, baths full of rotting nettles, and they call this a hobby.... makes me a wee but glad I am this side of the pond or is it going to drift over here ... ;D ;D XX Jeannine
Unfortunately the Gulf stream flows TOWARDS Blighty so any smells that get off the coast will get blown straight back inland again :o ;D
I don't expect they allow stinging nettle gloop on your posh allotments Jeannine. And I presume that the wind blows right round the planet so the smell from mine will reach you soon. ;D ;D
Some of mine has so much nettle in it that it has gone thick. Actually after about two days before it gets truly smelly and it a clear pee coloured liquid I quite like the smell. But the main thing is that the plants like it.
And the comfrey stinks even more.
;D my it stinks
got to be good for the garden ;D
You mean you can't smell my pee barrel? I thought it was infecting the planet.
No not yet Robert, pehaps I can forego that pleasure.. and by the way Digeroo, we ain't got no nettles on our posh lotties.. no mare's tail, no couch grass, no dandelions..just buttercups on the lawns. :D
XX Jeannine
Maybe those of you that don't understand, just don't have such refined noses as those of us that do. :D
Seriously though, it may include components that some people can smell and some can't, or that smell entirely different depending on your genetic provision as far as taste receptors go. For an example of this phenomenon, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylthiocarbamide - and potassium chloride, used in low-sodium salt, is another example. (Tastes of nothing - or tastes bitter - or tastes absolutely vile, depending on your taste bud genetics.)
I'm with Pauline, it makes me feel sick. I know pig nuts is pretty strong, but it doesn't smell of *dead* things. Nettle goop is more reminiscent of a rotting sheep carcass... :-s (Something I'm familiar with, from growing up in Mid-Wales - ahhh, the fragrant countryside...)
Thanks for all the replies - sorry I've been slow to get back to this thread, I was away on holiday for a few weeks.
I'm going to take the suggestion for burying nettles in planting holes - much more acceptable!
Reading this with interest as I'm just about to make my first batch with the nettles I've harvested from my new plot...not sure I want to now ;D
...I'm wondering if the soil pipe thing Toby did on GW last week would work for nettles as well?